Cause of the Month

Since 2013, Yoga Hikes DC has promoted and supported several local nonprofit organizations that work year round to protect our region’s incredibly important green spaces. If you love being outdoors and care about protecting the environment we encourage you to learn more about these great nonprofit organizations. Each of these organizations offers a variety of opportunities to learn, donate, and/or volunteer to support education, conservation, planting, and clean up programs right here in our nation’s capital!

Meet our Cause: Rock Creek Conservancy

Did you know there are more than 5,000 acres of parkland connected with Rock Creek, administered as several separate parks? The main body of Rock Creek Park in Washington, DC, is over 1,700 acres–more than twice the size of New York’s Central Park!

Rock Creek Park is a favorite location of Yoga Hikes DC. If you’ve been on a nature yoga hike with us, you’ve heard us talk about the great work of Rock Creek Conservancy and why it is important to support it!

Rock Creek Conservancy is a nonprofit group working to protect the lands and waters of Rock Creek and revitalize Rock Creek Park for people to treasure and enjoy.

Rock Creek Conservancy is the only organization solely dedicated to Rock Creek and its parks. The creek meanders 33 miles through the Washington metropolitan area, crossing federal lands as well as district, city, county, and state boundaries. Although parkland borders much of the creek, the surrounding development threatens the health and beauty of these natural areas. Rock Creek Conservancy is uniquely positioned to foster outreach, education, and protection efforts to overcome threats to Rock Creek.

Rock Creek Conservancy works through a combination of education, advocacy, and action. It’s strategy is to build partnerships with government agencies, nonprofit organizations, businesses, institutions, community groups, and residents to work together to preserve Rock Creek for present and future generations.

Rock Creek Conservancy is recognized as a 501(c)(3) organization by the Internal Revenue Service and files IRS Form 990 each year.

To donate, volunteer, and get involved with Rock Creek Conservancy CLICK HERE.

Meet our Cause: Dumbarton Oaks Conservancy

“I never knew this park was here!” Is a statement we hear on EVERY Yoga Hike, but especially upon entering America’s Secret Garden, Dumbarton Oaks Park. Our yoga hikers have observed more grazing and leaping deer here than on any other yoga hike. It is the location of one of our favorite Yoga Hikes photos (right). As evidenced by this photo, there is a special energy that emanates from this park that we feel and love! For that reason, we’ve selected The Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy as our September Cause of the Month.

The Conservancy is a non-profit organization established in 2010 that seeks to restore the bulk of one of America’s ten greatest garden landscape designs, namely 27-acre Dumbarton Oaks Park, formerly part of the Dumbarton Oaks estate in Georgetown, Washington, DC. The estate is a milestone in the history of American landscape architecture and a landmark in our social history since it is the finest work of Beatrix Farrand, America’s first female professional landscape architect. She shattered the glass ceiling in her profession, and this is her crowning achievement.

Stormwater, invasive species and time have ravaged the Park. But Farrand’s design intent is still visible in many places. The Conservancy and Rock Creek Park are committed to returning the Park to a sustainable Park that reflects Farrand’s design in a manner that meets the challenges of an urban environment. Why not join their efforts in restoring this gem in the middle of the city by becoming a member, volunteering your time, or promoting their work via your social media network?

Meet our Cause: CITY BLOSSOMS

City Blossoms is a non-profit organization working out of the Washington D.C. area dedicated to kid-driven, community engaging, creative green spaces.

City Blossoms is a year-round program that includes consulting, curriculum development (with consideration for learning standards), and regular on-site workshops. To date, City Blossoms has worked with over 3000 children and youth in various gardening projects.

City Blossoms has designed a unique method of developing and managing robust green spaces where children and youth are engaged as the main cultivators. We specialize in an art-based, hands-on approach that emphasizes the strengths and unique qualities of each learning center. All City Blossoms projects are organic and designed to work with the local environment and community needs. We look forward to bringing City Blossoms to schools and learning centers all around the area and increasing children and youth awareness about caring for the environment and themselves.

City Blossoms’ next big event is it’s Annual Spring Festival on June 2, 2017. This year’s theme? Art in the Garden! For more information, please visit http://www.cityblossoms.org

Meet our Cause: CASEY TREES

The story of Washington D.C.’s trees extends back to our first President, George Washington, a tree-lover and avid horticulturalist who chose the city’s location and the man who originally designed it – Pierre L’Enfant. Planned to support a lush tree canopy with extensive green spaces and tree lined boulevards, some consider D.C. as the birthplace of arboriculture due to the tens of thousands of trees planted here in the 1800’s which earned D.C. its nickname, the “City of Trees.”

Estimated to support approximately 50 percent tree canopy in 1950, D.C.’s canopy in 2011 declined to just over 35 percent. A Washington Post article chronicling this decline encouraged Betty Brown Casey, a longtime area resident, to establish Casey Trees in 2002 with its mission: “To restore, enhance and protect the tree canopy of the nation’s capital.”

Since then, Casey Trees has set a goal of attaining 40 percent canopy by 2032; planted over 23,000 trees; educated thousands of residents about the importance of urban tree canopy; supported the tree planting efforts of the D.C. Government, the National Parks Service, community groups and residents alike; inventoried and tracked the District’s tree resources to promote continued public funding for D.C.’s trees; advocated for green, tree friendly development and similar pursuits.